MORE than 500,000 health care workers have been left jobless by the government’s temporary ban on their deployment, according to a leader of the recruitment industry.
Lito Soriano, president of LBS Employment Solution, said the huge number of inactive medical workers calls for a thorough review of the government’s deployment ban.
He cited data from the Department of Health (DoH) showing that of the 750,000 licensed health professionals, only 204,437 are active in the health sector while 543,495 are not practicing their professions.
He called on the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and other concerned government agencies to undertake a serious study on the implications of the current ban on healthcare workers.
A Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) rule disallowed the processing of new contracts after March 8, 2020.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd said the ban was in compliance with the decision of the IATF-EID to ensure that the country’s health care requirements were fully met and would remain in effect until the national emergency and travel restrictions brought about by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic are lifted.
The policy decision was implemented by the POEA through its Governing Board Resolution (GBR) 9 adopted in April through its mission critical skill (MCS) framework.
POEA defines MCS as “those skills that reflect the primary function of the organization without which mission critical work cannot be completed and which skills are internally developed and require extensive training, thus, not easily replaceable.”
Aside from nurses, also included in the roster of MCS are medical doctors/physicians, microbiologists, molecular biologists, medical technologists, clinical analysts, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, x-ray/radiologic technicians, nursing assistants/nursing aids, operators of medical equipment, supervisors of health services and personal care, and repairmen of medical-hospital equipment.
Exempt from GBR 9 are balik manggagawa or returning health care workers with overseas employment certificate; new hire health care workers who have perfected and signed employment contracts on or before March 8, 2020; and seafarers previously hired as doctors and nurses, and will be deployed by the same licensed manning agency.
The rule also indicated the recruitment industry pointed out, effectively stopping the deployment of new hires in the health care industry especially former overseas nurses and new graduates of the nursing profession, including physical therapists, medical technologists and other allied health care professionals, to leave for countries that offer higher pay and benefit and permanent residency.
In calling for the lifting of the deployment ban, Soriano expressed belief that the deployment of new hires would not affect the health care industry since there are still over 240,000 nurses who are not active in the health care industry.
“Overseas job opportunities for nurses have been the primary driver of inspiration for our high school graduates to take the nursing profession. But the on and off ban will send a wrong signal to our youth that in the coming years, they will avoid nursing and this will impact the health care system of the country,” he added.
He also pointed out that nurses have been underpaid for the past 15 years, many of them earning less than P10,000 pesos in private hospitals and P5,000 in government hospitals.
He said recent moves of the government to raise the salaries of nurses to P 32,000 per month would not be realized until the new fiscal year of 2021 would go into effect.
“Banning the deployment of nurses is totally wrong as this violates the right to travel and curtailment of their freedom to seek a better future for their families, If the government cannot provide better working conditions for nurses at least allow them to seek their opportunities for a greener future for their families,” he added.
Data from the POEA for the last 19 years also showed that about 150,000 nurses have left for abroad.
Nurses deployment peaked from 2003 to 2008 but has since dropped.
Saudi Arabia topped the list with an average annual deployment of 8,000 to 10,000 nurses annually.
Source: This article was first published on Manila Times, August 30, 2020. https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/08/30/news/national/500k-medical-workers-jobless/760941/
